Headwaters

Warner Center, L.A. 2008.

This is where the LA River starts. Calabasas Arroyo on the left merges with the recently-joined Bell and Dayton Creeks, on the right. At this point, at least one map I've studied starts using the name Los Angeles River. The river continues east through the southern San Fernando Valley, wraps around Griffith and Elysian Parks, skirts downtown, then heads south to the port.

There are grand plans in the works for rehabilitating and de-channelizing this river. Currently, it is mostly ignored, other than for fire truck drills in its dry concrete basin. Livestock live next to the channel in some of the poorer areas. A bike path follows it from Long Beach north to Vernon, where it quits suddenly and without comment or direction.

In the picture above, there are about four inches of water flowing over that flat sheet of concrete--just enough for a duck to paddle in. This seemed like more than the usual for late May, but that's just a guess. I'm eager to see what the river becomes.